Angels Don’t Get Break on Forkball : Baseball: Harvey blows a save opportunity for first time. Chicago wins, 6-5.

The thought gnawed at Angel catcher Lance Parrish, as he sat in the silence of the Angels’ clubhouse after their 6-5 loss to the White Sox at steamy Comiskey Park, that he might have tempted fate too often.

Was it a mistake to tell Bryan Harvey to throw another forkball to Tim Raines in the ninth inning Tuesday?

Or was the forkball, Harvey’s out pitch, the right pitch to Raines?

Pinch-hitter Dan Pasqua had hit a two-out forkball for a single and scored when Ozzie Guillen lined a fastball for a game-tying double. Guillen took third on a balk and pinch-hitter Joey Cora walked; Guillen danced down the line as the count reached 2 and 1 on Raines.

The forkball had helped bring Harvey 11 saves in as many opportunities, so Parrish and Harvey went with the forkball. The game went with it, as Raines smacked it to right-center to score Guillen and eclipse a fine seven-inning, four-hit effort by Angel starter Jim Abbott.

“I might have called it a few too many times, but I kept feeling, ‘This time we’ll get one,’ ” Parrish said. “He left one out over the plate that Pasqua hit, and it was a fastball against Ozzie, and Ozzie just did what he’s supposed to do--drive the ball into the gap.

“You can second-guess yourself all you want, but in that situation you have to come after the guy.”

Harvey (1-1) knew the forkball was the right call. He also knew the location of his offering to Raines was wrong--right over the plate.

“Pasqua hit a forkball. He didn’t hit it hard, just where nobody could get it,” Harvey said after the Angel bullpen’s first missed save in 14 chances. “I left the ball over the plate for Guillen, then I started battling myself a little bit.”

Battling himself and Raines was too formidable a task.

Raines’ game-winning hit was his fourth RBI, including a two-run home run in the eighth that hopped over the fence when Angel left fielder Luis Polonia’s left elbow struck the wall, sending the ball out of his glove and out of the park.

“It was like somebody was pulling the ball from the other side,” Polonia said.

Harvey took the defeat philosophically. “You’re never going to go the whole season with the bullpen not losing a game,” said Harvey, who entered the game in the eighth after Scott Bailes and Jeff Robinson each recorded an out. “If this is the only one we lose, we’re going to have a pretty good season.”

Abbott retired the first 16 hitters he faced, although the 23-year-old left-hander never dared to think he would pitch a no-hitter.

“As many hits as I give up, that was pretty far-fetched,” Abbott said.

But it wasn’t far-fetched to expect he would win, when he left with a 4-2 lead.

“It’s a very, very bitter pill to swallow,” said Abbott, who issued no walks and has given up only two (one intentional) in his last 24 innings. “This is the type of game we have to win if we want to contend.”

A victory would have left them two games out of first place in the AL West, and that prospect looked good in the early innings. Wally Joyner’s homer into the right-field bullpen and Dave Winfield’s two-run blast to left--his 385th career homer, tying him for 26th all-time--gave them a 3-0 lead off Charlie Hough before the White Sox came to bat. A walk and two singles increased that lead to 4-0 in the third.

Even after the White Sox manufactured a run in the sixth on a ground single to right by Guillen--their first hit--and singles by Don Wakamatsu and Raines, the lead seemed safe. The Angels made it 5-2 in the eighth when Junior Felix doubled and Dick Schofield singled, but Raines’ homer got the White Sox back in the game.

“Chicago is just a tough team. I don’t like playing those guys in close games,” said Abbott, who watched the finish from the Angels’ clubhouse, where he was icing his pitching arm. “They have a lot of character. You have to give them a lot of credit.”

Abbott had no qualms about leaving the game to the relievers when he did. “I’ll take my chances 99 times out of 100 with those guys,” he said.

Tuesday was the exception.

“Harv’s human,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “I didn’t think he’d go the rest of his life without (not) converting a save opportunity. It’s unfortunate. Let’s face it. We scored enough runs to win. We should have won. We didn’t.”